Art in the Wild

 

The Baby Block I submitted to the All Staff, Faculty and Docent art show is now on display in the Higgins Education Wing of the Worcester Art Museum.

The show is running  6/6/2026 - 7/12/2026 during museum open hours. Entrance to the Higgins Education Wing is free. 

Monet and Me

 

and Miro are showing off the bottom panel for the baby gift. I still have to add my name and particulars. 

The baby block will be on display at the Worcester Art Museum All Staff, Faculty, and Docent Exhibit. Exhibition Dates: 6/6/2026 - 7/12/2026 There will be an  Exhibition Reception: 6/9/2026, 11:30am - 1:00pm

I'll have the baby gift back in time for the annual family gathering in July when we will get to meet the new baby.

Monet and Me

 

finished the first panel to fit inside a 3.5 in. x 3.5in. photo cube to be given as a baby gift for our niece. This is the top of the block.

When the niece texted that her daughter had arrived, I asked for the baby's statistics. Name, birthdate, time of birth, weight, and length.

I also asked if there was a theme like teddy bears or bunnies for the baby's nursery. I was told there was no theme just the colors mauve and green.

The niece has two tuxedo cats so I decided to use them as my theme along with the color scheme.

One side down. Four more to go. 

Monet and Me

 

Inspired by Kathy Milici's take on the Macintosh rose, I created a piece with her Modern Illuminated Initials for the newest grandniece's room. Monet approved of the design when I added Stickles glitter to the dots in the corner, center of the roses, and dots on the ends of the heart border.

Second on the Second - Wed Letter Day

 From Wednesday 

June 2, 2010

The Young One's graduation hoopla had me a little behind. This week 2 letters to catch up to finish the month of May.

Wondering what letter to make while looking at the bathroom tile. Gee, great idea! (-;

And a "P" a la Sherrie Kiesel.

It's your turn to play. From Elizabeth: Now it's time to share your Second on the 2nd.  The rules are quite simple and everyone is welcome to join the fun look back.  All you have to do is bring back a post that you are especially proud of, or perhaps one you shared before anyone knew your blog existed.  Any post, any genre, any artistic endeavor is acceptable.  Join hosts Bleubeard and Elizabeth to see what else is being served up the Second Time Around.

A Letter to the Teacher

 

My calligraphy teacher, Gerry, recently celebrated a milestone birthday. (Aren't all birthdays milestones?) Her Young One invited Gerry's family and friends to submit a video for a montage on Tribute.

As a prompt, we were asked to tell our favorite memory of Gerry and make a birthday wish for her. 

There are so many memories of Gerry, it was hard to pick just one. So I wrote her a letter, in calligraphy of course, along with a decorated initial and suitable decoration. I held the letter in front of my face while I read the letter and recorded the video. At the end, I popped out from behind the letter, as if Gerry wouldn't be able to tell who the letter was from.

"August 2024

Dearest Gerry,

Thank you for never telling me to take up knitting [ed: When I was a beginner and taking a workshop Gerry thought I would like, the instructor, frustrated with me being left-handed, told me I should forget about calligraphy and to take up knitting. As if that would have been any easier!, but I digress] Thank you for being the most caring, sharing teacher and friend. 31 years ago, you infected me with the calligraphlu and I'm so glad I never recovered.

Have a healthy and amazing creative year as you make another trip around the sun.

Happy Birthday"

Baby Gift

 

for the newest grand-niece

10 in. x 8 in., Arches 90 lb watercolor paper

Moon Palace Sumi ink with Nikko G nib

Micron pigma pen and Prismacolor watercolor pencils

Inktober 2023

Another Inktober creeped up on me so fast. With all the traveling I've been doing, I didn't have time to make a journal for the Inktober challenge. The very first Coptic Stitch book I made was sitting empty because at the time, I was too timid to write in it. No More.

10/01 Challenge prompt: Dream

A versal letter featuring Dream (Tom Sturridge) from The Sandman

Sumi ink, watercolor, Micron Pigma pen on Arches Text Wove

10/02 Challenge prompt: Spiders

Micron Pigma pen, Towbow Markers

10/03 Challenge prompt: Path

Sumi ink, Micron Pigma pen, Towbow Markers

Whatcha Doin?

I am re-doing the last project we did in class with Dan.  I didn't finish it. We didn't have a lot of time to complete this project on the last day.  I work slowly, and I had a hard time floating the Instacoll in the center of the "O" designed by Dan. The letter was 2 1/2 in. square and larger than anything I've gilded. I found the edges were drying before I had the center filled. 

Instacoll is to be applied in a thick-ish layer, but in my haste I had added too much. The paper buckled and the goop pooled at the bottom of the letter. Instacoll takes 45 minutes to dry before you can apply whatever metal is being used. 

The surface of the Instacoll had dried, but underneath was still wet. When I went to tool the gold with the thin, cross-hatched lines, the gold tore revealing the Instacoll. 

Though I called this an epic fail, it really wasn't. I mixed the delicious blue-black background using red, yellow, and blue watercolor.  I learned how the materials reacted. How much time is needed for things to dry. How much time I need to work. All valuable lessons.

Dan told me I could try to salvage the piece by thinning some Instacoll with water, applying it again to the center, let it thoroughly dry, and lay another layer of gold. 

I think I'll add some lettering and re-do the project.

Whatcha doin?

Practice Piece

 For the past month or so, Masscribes Calligraphy Guild has been holding a Zoom Drop in Art Group on Tuesday nights. Each week, there's a theme and participants can choose to work on the theme, socialize, ask questions about techniques, talk about new tools, and socialize. Members can also work on their own project if they choose.

This week's theme was a short quote. I chose "The road to freedom is bordered by sunflowers" attributed to Martin Firrell.

As Harry's brother, Steve, would say, "It's nice, potentially harmless, but..." Meh. The sunflower in the counterspace of the T looks tight as if it was just jammed in there, but at least I did something. Nan dropped in, too, and she chose the same quote. 

I decided to re-do the decorated initial. This design was what I initially was going to do before I changed my mind and did the single sunflower. I like this design much better. What do they say? Always go with your first answer?

Moon Palace Sumi ink, Prismacolor watercolor pencils, and Micron Pigma pen.

Illuminated Notecard

 

Last week, my students worked on illuminated or decorated initial bookmarks. Since my tablemate, L, sent me a valentine, I made her a notecard with an illuminated initial. Her artwork features pen and ink drawings of sheep so I illuminated her initial with a chubby lamb.  The centers of the flowers are 23K gold dots, but they don't show up well in the photo.

Saturday Morning at the Library

 

When I was 5 years old, I was forced to take dancing lessons while the Brother was forced to take accordion lessons. I hated dancing class. The Knights of Columbus Hall where the classes were given had no heat or it wasn't turned on. I hated wearing the pink beginner tights. I liked clacking around in the tap shoes, but Ma wouldn't let me practice inside the house on the wood floors. I spent most of my time in class being miserable and crying. Eventually, I was taken out of class.

While the Brother still had to endure accordion lessons, Dad took me to the library. He would leave me upstairs in the children's library where I could look at the books and choose to take some books home with my own library card. As I got older, I would go downstairs to the adult library and wander among the stacks enjoying the scent of the books before going to find Dad in the reference area consulting the law books and catching up on his work.

So for the next several weeks, a list of my favorite books, some I have read as a child, others as an adult and some  I have read more than once.

This week, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. A Hester Prynne gives birth to a child out of wedlock in Puritan New England. She is shunned by her village and forced to wear a scarlet letter "A" as a mark for committing adultery.

If you haven't read this book, you can read it for free at Project Gutenberg, or you may be able to find it at your library or favorite bookstore. 

From Our Home To Yours

Quill

Calli

Unboxing the Alphabet

For the WAM faculty art show, I decided to make a concertina book held by a belly band.

Only that wasn't enough, I made an origami presentation box with lid, too.

Book and belly band

Book without belly band

The concertina or accordion fold book has 10 pages. The end pages are glued to the covers for a total of 8 pages for writing. The book starts with the letter A decorated for Winter

The top bowl of the B illustrates Spring and the bottom bowl for Summer. The letter C is decorated for Autumn/Fall.

Text pages. Verso: "Each of us has his own alphabet with which to create poetry." Oops, I forgot to give author, Irving Stone credit. The alphabet is written out and a variation ending on the Recto for the Alphabet Song: Now you know your ABCs, next time won't you write with me?

The last 3 pages provided a way for me to sign my work.

Sumi ink, gouache, watercolor, 23 karate gold (because I can) written with a Brause 1 mm. on Arches Text Wove. The book measures 2.5 inches square.

Whatcha Doin?

 Another page in my workshop journal. This workshop was sponsored by Strathmore as part of their workshop series. This workshop, Creative Watercoloring with Leslie Tieu was from 2020. I had downloaded all the instructions, but never got around to playing.

Leslie provided two templates of the word Home to print out and trace. One font was a serifed font the other sans serif. I chose the serifed font.

She had painted some stylized leaves in shades of pinks, browns, yellows. Not really my colors. I decided to paint each letter according to the seasons Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall.

Whatcha doin?

Society of Scribe Workshop - Magical and Mysterious Creatures in Watercolor Lettering World

 

Veronica Cruz, a presenter from the Society of Scribes Springfest, guided participants through her Magical and Mysterious Creatures in Watercolor Lettering World. Her fanciful creatures are based on  Alebrijes, the Mexican folk art sculptures of colorful, mythical creatures.

Veronica's creatures are shaped into letters and she used watercolors to bring them to life. I was hoping my creation based on a photo of Ink would be read as a letter "C" but now I can see it also could be the letter "G". Oops.

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. So nice in the sun room, I worked on the title page for my workshop journal

2. Errands and breakfast at IHOP

3. A visit to the cemetery and breakfast at  Cracker Barrel

4. I bought a toaster that just toasts bread and doesn't need to connect to an app to go to the moon.

5. Emailed vacation plans with the Eldest.

How was your week?

Brought To You By The Letter

 

a gift for Baby D's room. Inspiration for the vignette came from one of my favorite reference books Illuminated Letters Sketchbook by Jane Sullivan.

What We Do In Calligraphy Class

 

I was asked to show what beginners do in calligraphy class. All the letters from A to Z and a decorated initial on a bookmark.

Inktober

 

10/15 challenge prompt: outpost

Micron Pigma pen

10/16 challenge prompt: rocket

A play on words. Lyrics from "At The Hop"

Sharpie pen, watercolor pencil

10/17 challenge prompt: storm

They whispered to her,

"You cannot withstand the storm."

She whispered back,

I am the

STORM

Sharpie pen, watercolor pencil

10/18 challenge prompt: trap

Sharpie pen, colored pencil, rubber stamp

10/19 challenge prompt: dizzy

Pilot Parallel Pen 6 mm, and the red ink that comes with the pen

#Inktober #Inktober 2020

10/20 challenge prompt: coral 

With a play on words choral. White Choral Bells is from the Girl Scout Songbook

Moon Palace sumi ink, Nikko G nib, watercolors, Pigma pen

10/21 challenge prompt: sleep

Sharpie pen